


stay with me when the stars come out

by led_zephlin



Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Flashbacks, Light Angst, Prompt Fill, Stars, Wishes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 21:10:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21259706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/led_zephlin/pseuds/led_zephlin
Summary: Sasha has always loved the sky, and has always loved the stars.Maybe it's time to make a wish on one.





	stay with me when the stars come out

Sasha never got to see the stars very often in Other London. It was just the sort of thing that didn't happen when you lived underground. 

Sometimes, though, she and Brock would sneak out through some corroded tunnel at twilight and scale whatever building was closest and easiest to climb. They could race to the top, laughing and teasing each other before hefting themselves onto the roof. 

Their laughter would fade out once they reached the top and caught their breath, and a sudden hush would fall over the two of them as they looked up at the night sky. 

Sasha loved looking at the sky at night. That vast, inky darkness that seemed to stretch on forever and ever, a shadow that she dreamed of melting away into, far away from Barrett and the maze of Other London. 

The stars were Brock's favorite, though. He always wanted to try and count every twinkling dot (difficult, as he could only count to about three hundred before getting mixed up), and he used to joke that if anyone could steal a star from the sky, it would be Sasha. 

"One of these days, Sash, I'll have enough money to just buy you a star," he would say. "We'll be able to move far, far away, we'll have a big house and lots of food and I'll buy you a star and you can name it whatever you want." 

And Sasha would smile (one of the last times for a while) and say, "I'll name it after you, then," and Brock's eyes would shine as bright as the diamonds in the sky at that. They'd spend the rest of the night connecting stars together to make pictures, and fall asleep on the shingled roof until the rising sun woke them up. Sasha learned to dread the sunrise, because it always meant that they'd have to climb back down and into Other London. 

When Brock went missing, Sasha hadn’t felt safe enough to go on the nighttime trips to see the stars, not without someone watching her back. So she stayed away from rooftops and instead retreated farther into Other London and herself, and that was just the way things had to be.

Now, though, after Paris and Prague and Cairo and Rome and all the things she’d done, there’s something about sitting on an open field and staring up at the sky that finally feels like some sort of semblance of safety. 

There are different stars here, different pictures to be drawn and a different grass beneath her fingertips. But the moon is the same, and so is the darkness that blankets it all.

Brock would have liked these stars, she thinks. She resolves to love them twice as much, to make up for his absence. 

A clanking sounds from behind her, and Sasha turns her head to see Azu standing there.

“Are you alright, Sasha?” Azu asks in that soft way of hers.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Sasha replies, and both she and Azu seem a little taken aback by the peace that’s in her voice. “Just lookin’ at the stars.”

"May I?" Azu asks, gesturing at the ground by Sasha. She always asks before she does something. It's one of the things Sasha likes about her. 

"Sure," Sasha says, and Azu's armor clinks as she folds into a sitting position. Sasha’s never been sure if the warmth that radiates from her is from Aphrodite, or if that’s just how Azu is, but it makes her feel safe, nonetheless. She lets herself rest her head against the armored muscle of Azu’s arm as she gazes back up at the sky. A bolt of light streaks across the sky and she jerks to attention. “What was that? Was that magic?”

“No,” Azu soothes. “Just a shooting star, I think.” 

“Oh.”

“At home, we always say you ought to make a wish on them,” Azu says, and falls quiet for a moment. Sasha tries to think of a wish she could make, something simple enough that whatever celestial force that watches over wishes has little issue making it come true. She finds one, eventually.

“Did you make one?” she asks Azu, who smiles. 

“I did.”

“Good,” Sasha says. “Don’t tell me what it was though, because then it might not come true, y’know?” 

“Of course.” 

Sasha nods and turns her attention back to the stars. “They’re really beautiful, aren’t they?” she says, a bit awed.

“Yes,” Azu says, and her voice has become a bit hushed, “Yes, they are.”

Sasha looks to see Azu gazing at her with such fondness that it stirs something in her chest, and can’t help but smile before ducking her head. 

“D’you think that whole thing about the shooting stars is true?” she asks, holding out her hand in an attempt to be nonchalant, “Like, do you think the wishes really work?”

Azu takes her hand, and Sasha’s heart flutters. 

“I like to think it does,” she says softly. Sasha draws circles over the callused knuckles before glancing back up at the sky.

“Yeah, me too.”


End file.
